It’s been 74 years since we last heard AYANEO talk about the Pocket DS, but we can finally reset the counter. Earlier today, AYANEO CEO Arthur Zhang, hosted a livestream providing a recap of the original announcement, a showcase of some unannounced features, the price, and “One More Thing.” Oh, and during the stream, the Indiegogo campaign went live, meaning you can pre-order one now!

AYANEO Pocket DS Indiegogo

I won’t waste everyone’s time by rehashing the details that we already knew about. The biggest question ahead of the stream was how much the Pocket DS was going to cost. That question was emphatically answered, as the base configuration starts at $399, equipped with the Snapdragon G3x Gen 2, 8GB of RAM, and 128GB of storage. This is just the “IGG Early Bird” price, so once the campaign has concluded, the base model will come in at $519.

In total, there are five different configurations to choose from, but you don’t get into the “fun colors” without paying a bit of a premium. Here’s a breakdown of how pricing shakes out across the board:

AYANEO Pocket DS - Shadow Black Promo Render - 1

 

  • 8GB/128GB
    • Shadow Black
    • IGG Early Bird: $399
    • Retail: $519
  • 12GB/256GB
    • Shadow Black
    • IGG Early Bird: $439
    • Retail: $559
  • 16GB/512GB
    • Shadow Black
    • IGG Early Bird: $499
    • Retail: $619
  • 16GB/1TB
    • Starry Yellow
    • IGG Early Bird: $599
    • Retail: $719
  • 16GB/1TB
    • Retro Gray
    • IGG Early Bird: $639
    • Retail: $759

At the time of this writing, the only configuration that isn’t available is the Shadow Black Pocket DS in the 16GB/512GB configuration. The way things are looking, the Shadow Black 12GB/256GB model has the second most backers, with the Retro Gray 16GB/1TB rounding out the top three. We suspect it won’t be much longer before the initial stock is completely sold out, which might not bode well for some.

That’s because AYANEO provided a bit of insight as to what we can expect when its time for these to start shipping. Higher configuration (read: more expensive) units will be shipped first, meaning the Retro Gray and Starry Yellow, before the other configurations will be. It’s not all that surprising, but it’s nice to have some type of idea of what to expect as opposed to just hoping for an update sometime later.

AYANEO Pocket DS - Retro Gray Promo Render - 1

You might be wondering what the “One More Thing” was about, and if you haven’t guessed it by now, just look at the picture above. The Retro Gray color was officially added to the lineup, with Zhang stating that it’s a “Limited Edition” model. We don’t know just how limited it will be, but we’re keeping our fingers crossed that the company will be making more than 200 of them.

Besides that, the rest of the livestream consisted of showing off some of the software features that AYANEO has been working on to accommodate the second screen. There will be three different Screen Modes to jump between, a three-finger gesture to move content from one screen to the other, and the redesigned AYANEO DS Launcher.

AYANEO Pocket DS All Colors - 3

And once the announcements were made, the livestream continued as Zhang offered some looks at the Pocket DS in person, as opposed to just leaving everyone with a bunch of renders. So all-in-all, it was actually a decent product livestream, even if it took way too long to tell everyone how much the Pocket DS was going to cost.

AYANEO Pocket DS Indiegogo

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